Review of Reviews, 1/3/13. 



LEADING ARTICLES. 



43 



Triple Entente, a union which may be 

 equally capable at some future day of 

 attracting- Italy into its orbit. For it 

 may be that the Triple Alliance will not 

 long survive the advent to the throne of 

 the Archduke Francis Ferdinand. 



AUSTRIA V. ITALY. 



Raqueni, writing in the Niouvelle 

 Revue, states that the Italian Press and 

 public opinion in Italy sympathise with 

 the Balkan States, and that any agree- 

 ment Italy and Austria make against 

 Servia would be unacceptable in Italy. 



The Italian Press is indeed unanimous 

 in raising its voice against the unjust 

 pretensions of Austria. Passages are 

 quoted from a remarkable article by the 

 Deputy Signor Caetani, published in the 

 Messagero. The whole of Italy, says 

 the Deputy, is with Servia against 

 Austria. He expressed the opinion that 

 Albania would be happier under Servia 

 and Greece than under an autonomous 

 regivie. 



At Berlin and at Vienna note is taken 

 of the popular feeling in Italy, and that 

 is the surest guarantee of the mainten- 

 ance of European peace. 



WHERE AUSTRIAN AND ITALIAN 

 INTERESTS CLASH. 

 Italy, like England, has rallied to the 

 formula of the Balkan States for the 

 Balkan peoples. This formula coincides 

 with the economic interests and liberal 

 aspirations of Italy, who desires the 

 free development of the different Balkan 

 nationalities. But between Italy and 

 Austria there is antagonism of interests 

 and divergence of views. Italy will 

 never permit Austria to acquire a great 

 preponderance in Albania. Nor would 

 Italy admit an economic Customs union 

 of Austria and the Balkan States. 



ITALY AND THE TRIPLE ENTENTE. 



In I^aly nothing would be more popu- 

 lar than an alliance with the Balkan Con- 

 federation and the Triple Entente— that 

 is to sa}', with France, England and 

 Russia — continues Raqueni. Unfortun- 

 ately, from love of peace, Italy is ob- 

 liged to remain in the Triplice. War 

 with Austria, it is generally believed, 

 would be inevitable the moment Italv 



left the Triplice. Raqueni is not of that 

 opinion. 



A curious fact is the change of Italian 

 opinion in favour of Russia. Under the 

 government of Crispi the relations be- 

 tween Italy and Russia were most 

 strained. To-day even the Socialists in 

 Italy recognise the necessity of an Ita- 

 lian entente cordude with Russia. 



Rl'SSIA V. AUSTRIA. 



In CornhilU Mr. B. Austin purports 

 to give sidelights on the Balkan war, 

 but they are tinged with a lurid hatred 

 of Russia. He says: — 



A c-ontinual war, all the more bitter and dan- 

 gerous because it lias to be waged in secret, is 

 going on between Austria and Russia. The victor 

 will gain paramount influence. In the course 

 of this struggle Holy Russia has never hesitated 

 to employ the traitor or the assassin. It was 

 owing to Russian influence that Milosh Obreno- 

 vitch, who had won autonomy for Servia by the 

 sword, was driven into exile; Russian agents 

 were responsible for the murder of Michael 

 Obreuovitch in the Deerpark ; Russia instigated 

 two attempts on Milan, and prompted his mis- 

 tress, a Russian spy, to urge him on in his 

 desire of abdication. Holy Russia, again, en- 

 ox>u>raged the ill-fated Alexander in his passion 

 for Draga, while the Russian Minister was cog- 

 nisant of the military conspiracy which cul- 

 minated in the bloody tragedy of June 10, 1903. 

 Such were the methods employed by Pan-Slavism 

 to annihilate the Obrenovitch dynasty, which 

 had alwaj-8 shown a tendency to coquet with 

 Austria. 



A peasant's STRANGE PROPHECIES. 



The writer mentions in a note the pro- 

 l^hecies of the peasant Meta of Kremna, 

 whose utterances are carefully included 

 in secret State papers: — - 



Meta not only in 1868 foretold the advent of 

 the telephone, but he had a clairvoyant vision of 

 Michael Obrenovitch's murder, he prophesied the 

 main details of Milan's and of Alexander's reigns, 

 Peter Karageorgevitch's succession, his disappear- 

 ance, the occupation of Servia by a foreign army 

 and the rise of a hero, who was in some way 

 connected with the Obrenovitch dynasty "as if 

 an oak tree which had been felled had thrown 

 out a shoot close by." 



BULGARIA TOP DOG. 



He savs that an\' determination of 

 Servia to hold the .Sandjak or to seize 

 Salonika must infallibly bring her into 

 collision with Austria, who could, from 

 .Semlin, destroy Belgrade within two 

 hours. The writer is confident that Bul- 



aria, and not Servia, would be the top 



